By Nathaniel Burson
What does God have in store for the billions of unsaved in this world? What will be the final reward of an unsaved young child who drowned when their parents turned their backs for a moment? What about the ancient Israelite who died never hearing of Christ? (Since Christ wasn’t born yet!)
Or what about the frustrated teenager on the street, a lonely refugee from a brutal home, who after dabbling in drugs and all manner of sin still finds no place in this cruel, lonely world and commits suicide? Where will this person, who has seen none of the joy’s life can bring and has never had a reason to believe in God or an honest chance at salvation, end up?
Will these hapless creatures die and only then discover the true meaning of suffering as they are slowly roasted in hell throughout eternity, spending a billion lifetimes in agony – are those the loving, tender mercies of God?
Is this really the way God works? Does God half-heartedly offer a message to some of the world, then lock the door on salvation FOREVER because they failed to notice it? What does the Golden Rule say… would God like that if it were done to Him?
IS THERE HOPE FOR THE UNSAVED?
Most religions teach boldly that THIS is the ONLY DAY of salvation. That once Jesus returns, the door is locked, and no one will ever be saved again. They often use this as a tool to frighten people into obedience to the church, or to make people feel the urgency of getting everyone saved NOW
They primarily base their doctrine on 2 Corinthians 6:2. At first glance, it certainly looks like this is the ONLY time when you can be saved. And based on this the preacher shouts, “So get SAVED today, or BURN forever!” But… is that what it really says? If true, that doctrine condemns most of the world, perhaps 98% of all mankind since the creation of Adam, to hellfire with no hope of salvation! And that includes many, if not most of our family and friends, if they’re not saved in this time. Is that REALLY what a do-unto-others God would do? When Paul was inspired to write 2 Corinthians 6:2, he did so in the Greek language. And the Greek language has a peculiarity which is a bit hard for us to understand today – it had no definite or indefinite articles. That means there were no such words as “the” or “a”, in the Greek language.
That means in Greek both “I want a salad” and “I want the salad” are written as “I want salad”. There is no word that specifies the only salad, or one of the salads! So in this verse, the word “the” was a guess by the translators, because they THOUGHT Paul would have said “THE day of salvation”, had he been speaking English.
But PAUL didn’t tell us! The language DID NOT PRESERVE whether Paul meant THE day or A day of salvation! This entire doctrine is built on a word that doesn’t exist! 2 Corinthians 6:2 (YLT) for He saith, ‘In AN acceptable time I did hear thee, and in A day of salvation I did help thee, lo, now is A well-accepted time; lo, now, A day of salvation,’ These translators guessed the other way, and said “a” instead of “the”. But remember, both opinions are guesses because the language doesn’t say! The information simply isn’t there – did God mean this is the ONLY day of salvation, or did He mean this is ONE OF the days of salvation?
WHAT DOES GOD WANT?
What is God? 1 John 4:8. Does God want ANY to perish? 2 Peter 3:9. What was God’s will? John 3:16-17. What does He desire? 1 Timothy 2:4. God WANTS everyone to be saved. But God will not FORCE you to be saved against your will.
God has rules to follow in order to protect everyone, and you must follow those rules for everyone’s happiness, including your own. If you absolutely refuse to do that, then God will give you “the wages of sin” to protect everyone else. But not until after God has given you every opportunity to understand the truth! But wait a moment – has God given everyone who ever lived this opportunity? By what name do you have life? John 20:31. Is there ANY other name by which you can be saved?
Acts 4:10, 12. Has EVERYONE even heard this name? Has EVERYONE had access to the covenant with God? Has EVERYONE had hope of salvation? Ephesians 2:11-12. There is NO OTHER NAME than that of Jesus by which men can be saved. Not one! And yet there are, even today, people in China, Africa, the Amazon and elsewhere who have NEVER HEARD of that name!
In Ephesians 2:12, Paul says the Gentiles were, for the first 4,000 years of man’s existence, STRANGERS from the covenant. SEPARATED from Christ! Having NO HOPE and WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD!
Think about that! 98% or more of mankind for the first 4,000 years had absolutely NO HOPE of salvation! Billions more since then have NEVER HEARD of Jesus, even to this day! Much less heard a preacher, or read the Bible! (Romans 10:14). So how can God expect them to be saved, when He Himself said it couldn’t be done! So how can He send them to hell for failing??
To believe this is the only day of salvation is to believe those BILLIONS of souls were condemned by God to ETERNAL TORTURE never having been offered A SINGLE CHANCE at salvation! What sort of God would do that?
Can God, on the one hand, talk about how loving He is, how He wants ALL MEN to be saved, and how He doesn’t want ANYONE to perish… then turn around and kill 98% of the world’s population since creation SOLELY for the horrendous crime of NEVER HEARING HIS NAME? Can a sane God do that?
And is God so lazy and so uninterested in those other people, that He hasn’t found time EVEN TODAY to send a few measly prophets and Bibles into those places? Is that the God you want to serve? Is this the God who said He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”?
So, we have a simple Golden Rule choice: did God condemn the vast majority of humanity to a fate-worse than death without giving them a single chance to hear the truth? Or did God not worry about saving everyone in this life because He has other plans for their salvation in the future?
GOD HAS A PLAN
Read 1 Corinthians 5:4-5. Most people would say that this man, having been put out of the church, was destined for hell, beyond hope of salvation after this life. But what does it say there? To put him back into the world and deliver him unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh! There could be no clearer metaphor for letting a man die unsaved! And yet Paul commanded them to put him out of the church so that the spirit COULD be saved later, “in the DAY of the Lord Jesus”! If THIS is the ONLY day of salvation, as most believe, then how is it this man can be excommunicated, put out of the church, have his flesh destroyed (die), and THEN have ANOTHER chance to be saved?
Not a certainty, but a chance – his spirit MIGHT be saved, in a DIFFERENT day, the “day of the Lord Jesus”! This alone proves that this is NOT the only day of salvation! 2 Samuel 14:14 (NLT) All of us must die eventually. Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God does not just sweep life away; instead, HE DEVISES WAYS to bring us back when we have been separated from him.
When we die – and all must die – we are like water spilled on the ground. You can’t pick it up and put it back into the bottle. You can’t capture smoke from the air and make it a log again – it just vanishes and is gone forever. But God doesn’t intend for this life to be the last hope these unsaved souls ever have! And so God has “devised ways” to bring us back from death – even when we were separated from Him! He intervenes in the natural course of our death and protects our soul from oblivion to give those who died unsaved a chance – a real chance, and for most of mankind this will be their FIRST chance, to find God and receive salvation!
There is hope for the unsaved because “he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him” (2 Samuel 14:14, NIV). Even though you were an outcast – a stranger from the covenant, without hope, without God in this world, God has devised a way that such a person may not REMAIN a stranger!
UNSAVED AFTER THE RETURN OF CHRIST
Zechariah 14 is one of the many chapters in the Bible solely devoted to the return of Jesus Christ to this Earth. In verse 4, it speaks of Jesus standing on the Mount of Olives – which as you’ll recall, is the same place from which He left (Acts 1:9-12). This then, is His second coming. Zechariah 14:5 reminds us the saints come with Him this time – meaning it is the final return to Earth after the saints are resurrected.
But verse 16 makes it obvious that all of the wicked were not destroyed in that final battle! These were the nations which had fought against Jesus at His return in Armageddon – but now we find these very nations going up to Jerusalem to worship this same Jesus against whom they battled!
But even more shocking, verse 17 says – after Jesus returns – there will be some who are rebellious, who refuse to go up to Jerusalem! Even after Christ returns to rule all nations, those nations still have free will – they can still choose to disobey God! Naturally, as king, Jesus will punish those who disobey. Free will doesn’t mean they can sin without being punished! Verse 18 shows conclusively there will still be heathen here on the Earth, even after the return of Christ!
Some believe the plagues of Revelation kill all of the people remaining on the Earth; and while they do cause great destruction, read the very last plague described in Revelation 16:17-21. Notice in verse 17 a voice from the temple said “it is done” – meaning this will be the last plague. And after that plague was finished, were men still alive? And some still rebellious? Verse 21.
So, all the unsaved are NOT destroyed at His coming! Which means there must be some future hope for them! The entire energies of the universe are not focused on this tiny fraction of time, on a little flock of saints! Surely in eternity there is more that can be done than to celebrate getting the few who find the narrow road to salvation into the Kingdom of God! There HAS to be more going on that that!
Read Isaiah 65:18-20 carefully. God says He will CREATE Jerusalem rejoicing – that there will come a day in Jerusalem where no one cries! But this has never happened! Few cities in the history of the world have seen more weeping than Jerusalem! Where else is there a wall specifically devoted to weeping? And that weeping will continue until Jesus returns to finally put an end to the fear and hatred that fuels the strife in the Middle East and the rest of the world. And yet after this joyous return – and the resurrection of the saints – God says there will not be a child who dies at only a few days old, nor an old man who hasn’t lived a full life. No, God said the child SHALL DIE 100 years old – and the sinner being 100 years old shall be accursed.
The details of what all that means will be explained later, but for now it’s clear that after Jesus returns – after there is no more voice of crying heard in Jerusalem – God promises a full, long life – 100 years – to all. After which men will still DIE. There is still DEATH! Death after Jesus returns!
This scripture also speaks of CHILDREN in that day – so the cycle of birth, life, and death continues on this Earth, even after Jesus returns to establish His Kingdom! But does this cycle of life and death continue forever? Will there come a time when there is no more death? Revelation 21:4. But is that early in the plan – or is it the very LAST thing to happen?
1 Corinthians 15:24-26. From this we see that after the first resurrection when Jesus returns, and even after the second resurrection a thousand years later, there will still be children, life, death, and all the things associated with physical life today. But then at some point AFTER all this, there will come a time when there will be no more death. We’ll get back to that later.
THE SECOND RESURRECTION
So, you see, there are many, many reasons to have hope for the unsaved dead, and many more to come; but now let’s approach the subject more systematically, and assemble these scattered reasons into one framework that lays out, step by step, just what happens with the unsaved dead – when, and why. In Revelation 11:18, we see the first resurrection taking place; but Revelation 20:5plainly states, “the REST of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” This tells us the unsaved dead were not resurrected at the same time as the righteous dead. Further, it tells us that after the thousand years are finished, the rest of the dead will live again! A new life! Not automatically saved, nor resurrection just to destroy them, but new LIFE!
Most Christians believe Revelation 20:11-15 speaks of one brief moment when God resurrects the wicked dead, brings them before a tribunal court, some angelic bailiff intones a list of all the crimes each person has committed in this life, God judges them, then promptly kicks them off into hell.
And if you ignore the rest of the Bible as so many do, it appears to say something like that. But let’s ask some questions that challenge that idea… What are the wages of sin? Romans 6:23. When you sin, what do you earn? Death, you say? How many deaths?
Is the wages of sin TEN deaths? If you sin, must God kill you, resurrect you, kill you, resurrect you, ten times before the law is satisfied? What does that scripture say? How many deaths? Five? Two? That’s right, it says ONE death. So, if you die as all men do… why does God need to resurrect you at all? So, He can say, “I told you so”? To see the look on your face when you realize how horribly you’ve messed up? So, He can laugh as you beg for mercy as He makes you walk the fiery plank? This what most of the world believes God is like!
If you die, you’ve paid your debt! If our law says a man who steals deserves five years in prison, and he serves his five years, does the law have any claim over him? Is he out on parole? Is he still on probation? Of course not! He’s a free man! And so, if you die, you have paid your debt to sin IN FULL and you are a free man! (Romans 6:7).
And if God should for any reason resurrect you, then you are a new person, sinless and clean! Carefully check my logic on this! If God resurrects an unsaved person, that person has not committed any crimes that have not been paid for in full! And so God has NOTHING TO READ OUT OF THE BOOKS! There’s nothing left to judge!
They cannot be judged according to their works (Revelation 20:12-13) – because since paying for their sins at death, THEY HAVEN’T DONE ANY WORKS, GOOD OR BAD! (Ecclesiastes 9:10). And yet they are judged! Which means that after being resurrected they must LIVE A NEW LIFE! And THEN, in THAT second life, be judged according to their works!
Read Revelation 21:8. This scripture describes the place where unrepentant and unsaved sinners end up. What does it call this event? The second death. The second death. But you can’t kill a man twice unless he is alive twice! Revelation 20:5 said plainly that the rest of the dead WILL live again after the thousand years – and if you just put that thought together with Revelation 20:14, you see that it is the works of their second life that are being judged here! And THEN, if they are still found unworthy, they are sentenced to the lake of fire and brimstone.
THE RESURRECTION OF JUDGMENT
What is appointed to all men? Hebrews 9:27. And what comes after that death? That judgment – when does it take place? 2 Timothy 4:1. Why must we be judged? 2 Corinthians 5:10. And will that day of judgment be followed by the punishment of the ungodly? 2 Peter 3:7, Revelation 20:13-15. And are the ungodly being judged now, or is that judgment being RESERVED for them – postponed until a later date? 2 Peter 2:9. But are the saved judged at the same time as the unsaved? John 5:28-29.
The KJV translates John 5:29 as “they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation”. This is an accurate, but outdated translation; 400 years ago, “damnation” simply meant “judgment”, not “punishment”. Most modern translations do better, Weymouth for instance which says, “they whose actions have been evil to the resurrection of judgement”.
So, this second resurrection after the thousand years have passed is the resurrection of judgment. But what is that judgment? And how is it done? We can answer that very easily after we answer another question – exactly how is it that WE are judged today? When are we to be judged? 1 Peter 4:17. Who judges us, and based on what? 1 Peter 1:17. How do we know we are being judged by God? 2 Thessalonians 1:4-5. When we are judged, and God finds we are not good enough, what does He do? Hebrews 12:5-11. But if you judged yourself, now, would God need to judge you? 1 Corinthians 11:31-32.
But when you DON’T judge yourself, what happens? Verse 32. If you don’t judge yourself, do you invite the judgment of God on yourself? Verses 28-29. And what does that bring on many people in the church of God? Verse 30.
Read Hebrews 12:5-11. Notice two categories of people. Those whom God punishes with the occasional spanking, and those whom God ignores; those He punishes are His sons (the saints). Those whom He does not punish are illegitimate (the unsaved). When your physical father judged you for stealing, he did so for your good – so you wouldn’t grow up to be a thief. And along with that judgment came an appropriate punishment. Next time, you would fear to steal – if not because you understood WHY stealing was wrong, then at least because you feared his punishment.
But now suppose that you had been able to see, right up front, that stealing was wrong – and choose not to do it. You would have judged yourself! So, your dad didn’t need to judge or punish you, for you had already done what was necessary to ensure it wouldn’t happen again!
God judges us “that we should not be condemned with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:32), and “that we might be partakers of His holiness” (Hebrews 12:10). And to do that, God must interactively judge us NOW! Which is why judgment must BEGIN with the house of God – those following God today! We are judged and punished NOW “so that we may be safe when the world is judged”
(1 Corinthians 11:32 BBE) – we’ll be safe because on the resurrected saints, the second death has no power! (Revelation 20:6). In order to be resurrected at Jesus’ return, they must already be judged worthy of eternal life – and hence have no need for a later judgment when the world is judged! Because we will have been resurrected at the resurrection of life, while they will be resurrected 1,000 years later at the resurrection of judgment (John 5:29). Does anyone escape judgment? Ecclesiastes 12:14. Are EVERY man’s works judged? 1 Peter 1:17. Do we ALL appear before the judgment seat of Christ? 2 Corinthians 5:10. But WHEN do we appear before that judgment seat? Revelation 12:10.
JUDGMENT NOW AND LATER
If God gives you understanding of His truth in this life, offers you a chance at salvation, you will be judged today. Your sins will be brought to your understanding, and you will be expected to repent of them, day by day, as they are revealed to you. In the judgment room of God, Satan will be condemning you during this process and Jesus will be defending you – offering up excuses based on mitigating circumstances because only He “has been tempted in all points like as we are” (Hebrews 4:15), so He can have compassion on our weaknesses (Hebrews 5:2).
Each time we do something worthy of judgment, we are punished (Job 5:17-18). This punishment might be loneliness, poverty, illness, or all of them – along with whatever else God feels is best suited to correcting us.If we repent, we are forgiven, and the judgment moves on to some other weakness we must conquer, and the process repeats until God can say we are “perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil” (Job 1:8). Then if we die “in faith”, certain we were living by every word of God – we receive the reward promised the saints.
But if we don’t repent, then we are sent back into the world, die the death of all men, and fully pay our debt to sin. And so, if this is how we are judged in THIS life… why would it be different for those in the second life? The rest of the dead live again. And the rest of the dead are JUDGED, according to their works, just as we are judged according to our works.
If God didn’t get around to calling someone today, and opening their mind to the truth, then they’re not being judged today. Sometimes good things happen to the wicked, and bad things happen to the good (Ecclesiastes 9:11). Time and chance – random fortune, luck – mostly governs their life. And so, when they’re resurrected in the second resurrection, they’re being judged for the FIRST TIME! And if anyone fails THAT judgment, and STILL doesn’t manage to get their name in the book of life – then they will be cast in the lake of fire and experience the second DEATH.
THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES
This is one of the most magnificent passages in the Bible. It alone proves, beyond any doubt, that God intends to resurrect the unsaved dead and offer them salvation. Not only does it say that, it goes into great detail about the process of their resurrection! Start reading in Ezekiel 37:1-11. Ezekiel comments that the bones were very dry. Bones get very dry only after a very long time. So these bones didn’t just die, they had been dead many years. God asked Ezekiel a simple question in verse 3, yet a question to which most modern preachers would give the wrong answer! Ezekiel answered wisely!
Then God prophesied, through Ezekiel, to these dry bones in verses 4-6. He promised that they would live again. Not only that! But He promised that after they lived again – in that “second life” we mentioned earlier – that these bones “shall know that I am the Lord” – that is salvation! So, in verses 7-8, Ezekiel did as he was told, then witnessed the bodies coming back together – but with no life in them. No soul, no spirit!
Remember from the previous lesson the dead are sleeping; God has stored that spirit somewhere in His library, asleep, rather like a computer disk can rest for years without consciousness but with all the information intact. And now through Ezekiel God describes the process of putting those spirits back into new bodies, “living again”! He puts the breath – the same Hebrew word usually translated “spirit” – back into them, and they live again, in verses 9-10. A great many people, Ezekiel says.
But who are these bones? Verse 11 answers. And those dead bones said to God, “our hope is lost!” – why? If they died saved, surely their hope was not lost! But they died UNSAVED, as nearly all of Israel did. And so, they had no hope! But remember 2 Samuel 14:14! “Yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.” – God has a plan for them! Read on!
To remove any doubt as to where these dry bones have been kept – and what period of time is being discussed in this chapter – read Ezekiel 37:12-14. Do you SEE what God has promised these unsaved, hopeless Israelites – and in symbol, promised to the world as well? That He would bring them UP from their graves and PUT HIS SPIRIT IN THEM! Putting the spirit of God in someone is the very DEFINITION of offering them salvation! (Romans 8:9, 14). So God prophesied that all of these dry bones who had no hope would LIVE. That His spirit would be placed in them, and they would know that HE is the Lord!
Ezekiel 37:16-27 speaks of the joining of the houses of Israel and Judah, divided into two separate kingdoms approximately 1000 B.C., after the death of Solomon. Verse 23 says they – these resurrected houses then offered salvation – will no longer defile themselves with idols, but that God will forgive their sins, and cleanse them – again, this is salvation! The salvation of the presently unsaved dead! And this has never yet happened!
Verse 24 makes the time frame clear because David – King David, after being resurrected in the first resurrection – will be their king – king OVER these second resurrection Israelites! Verses 25-27 say they will learn and OBEY God’s laws, and God will make a NEW COVENANT with them! This same “new covenant” He speaks of in Hebrews 8:8-12.
Read that carefully and compare it with what you’ve read in Ezekiel! A new covenant of putting His LAWS in their hearts and FORGIVING their iniquities! The same New Covenant you are being offered today, will one day be offered to all of unsaved Israel and indeed, all of mankind!
Ezekiel 37:28 concludes the chapter and underscores once more that during ALL of this time – while ALL of these things are taking place – there are still unsaved people on the Earth! Paul says many of these same things in Romans 10:19-21, Romans 11:7-11, 25-27. Read those passages and you’ll see that God blinded Israel so they would not be saved, so that the Gentiles COULD be saved – and so that in turn, ISRAEL could be saved – LATER, in the future! Romans 11:32 (BBE version) says, “For God has let them all go against his orders, so that he might have mercy on them all”. God has allowed them to be wicked so they can receive grace, so that ONE day He can have mercy on them! Because one day the dried bones of all these men and women who died unsaved will have HOPE of salvation!
Read Isaiah 29:24. They who ERRED in their spirit in this life will one day UNDERSTAND! And those who griped and grumbled against God will learn the truth! With no more lies being told, they can finally sort out the TRUTH! Even though they were unsaved today!
Do people today have trouble understanding God because there is a veil over their face? 2 Corinthians 3:13-16. Compare that to this prophecy: Isaiah 25:7-8. Today there is a veil spread over all nations! So, they cannot clearly see the truth! (1 Corinthians 13:12). But when the second resurrection happens, God will open their understanding for the first time and give them a chance to know Him!
And then what will happen? Isaiah 26:19. Compare to Revelation 20:13. Will the Earth hide the slain anymore? Isaiah 26:21-27:1. Now merge this prophecy with Revelation 20:1-3, 7-10. These verses are talking about the same event! See how this method of merging and harmonizing makes the Bible easy to understand! Especially prophecy!
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
THERE IS HOPE! All of this means there is REAL, SOLID HOPE for your unsaved grandparents; your child who died a few days old; your brother who just never quite saw the truth and preferred to live out his life in sin. They aren’t even now basking in the fires of hell, nor are they gone forever. Because God has devised a way to bring them back!
This world is hard; it is meant to be hard, and God allows it to be difficult, to see who REALLY loves the Golden Rule. But there will be another day of salvation, a day when the devil will be bound and God will be easier to find; in that day, many of those who didn’t find God today will become a part of His family.
To wrap this up, let’s have a peek at what that glorious world will be like! Start in Isaiah 11:1-5. These verses are prophecies of Christ – speaking of His birth as a descendant of Jesse (father of King David), His life on this Earth (verses 2-3) and then His return as King of kings (verses 4-5).
Then it shifts to describing the world as it will be governed by Him, verses 6-9. In these verses we see that there are still “little children”! And that various animals continue to have offspring as well! And in that day, “the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea”.
Compare that verse with the prophecy in Jeremiah 31:33-34, speaking of this same time. Then compare them both to Hosea 2:18-22. See how wonderfully all these verses from around the Bible fit together if you just believe each one of them! And then see what God goes on to promise in Hosea 2:23! People who were unsaved, who “had not obtained mercy”, and who “were not God’s people”, will find mercy, and find God!
And now go back to Isaiah 11:9-10! Has that day arrived yet? Can the child play on the hole of the snake, and the lion and lamb play together? No! But in that day when it IS possible, the Gentiles – not just the literal Gentiles, but all the SPIRITUAL Gentiles who didn’t find God in this life – then those Gentiles will SEEK after God! Verse 11 says God will “set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people”!
The second time – in the SECOND day of salvation! When they live their SECOND LIFE! He has saved some of His people today, and then will set His hand to do it THE SECOND TIME! But recover them from what? Verse 12 – recover them from being outcast! Because He has devised a way to recover those who were banished from Him by their sins in this life!
Now skipping down to Isaiah 12:1-3, speaking to these people who are saved in that future day of salvation, God prophesies they will say, “God has BECOME my salvation” – He wasn’t their salvation today; He was angry with them today, but then He will BECOME their salvation! Then in verse 3 we find the most amazing verse so far! In that day after the return of Christ, these people who had no hope for salvation in this life, who erred in spirit and with whom God was angry, will return to God and draw water out of the WELLS OF SALVATION!
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